UCLA flood reminds L.A. to put priority on infrastructure: Editorial

Water shoots in the air from a broken 30-inch water main under Sunset Boulevard on Tuesday. The resulting flood inundated several areas of UCLA, including the Pauley Pavilion basketball arena, a parking structure and several other buildings. (Photo by Mike Meadows/Associated Press)

In one of the prettiest parts of Los Angeles, something went terribly wrong below the surface Tuesday. A water main ruptured, flooding Sunset Boulevard and the UCLA campus.

Damage is extensive to university athletic facilities, including the Pauley Pavilion, and roads and parking structures. Five people had to be rescued from subterranean lots. As many as 300 vehicles were submerged in water.

If there’s a bright side to this, it’s that the incident is a dramatic reminder of how far behind L.A. is in maintaining its infrastructure — particularly Department of Water and Power systems but also streets, sidewalks, mass-transit lines, schools and colleges, and residential buildings.

Once the cleanup is completed, the bills are paid for what is expected to be many millions of dollars in damage, and we’ve stopped counting the precious gallons of water wasted amid a drought, let’s not forget what the incident says about the priority this city of facelifts must place on keeping its inside healthy.

“Infrastructure” covers a lot of ground, and underground. It’s the kind of unglamorous word that pops up in discussions of every kind of public issue. It’s a staple of earthquake-preparedness talk. It comes up when the city considers building a football stadium or bidding to host another Olympics. It’s there when advocates debate the merits of iPads for Los Angeles Unified school kids vs. needed classroom repairs.

When L.A. leaders discuss a plan for free, citywide Wi-Fi service, the more prudent-minded say: What about undertaking overdue infrastructure projects like filling the potholes and smoothing out the sidewalks before sprucing up the information superhighway?

When Gov. Jerry Brown promotes his $68 billion plan for a California bullet train, it’s natural to wonder how much improvement in basic infrastructure that money could buy.

As the density of Southern California’s urban population increases, and residential and commercial development creates more destinations, the pressure rises for city planners to provide the infrastructure to handle all of those people.

Infrastructure is a subtext for all aspects of life. But it’s rarely the topic for discussion in its own right.

It rose up and grabbed attention in a big way Tuesday.

The 30-inch, steel water main that ruptured was 93 years old. L.A. has pipes in the downtown and eastern areas that are more than a century old, dating to the DWP’s founding in 1902.

Upgrades, part of a capital improvement funded by water rate increases that took effect in 2008, are reflected in data reported by DWP: 20 or more miles of water mains have been replaced each year since 2008 (among its total of 7,200 miles of pipes), and water-main breaks declined from 1,502 in 2009 to 1,068 in 2013. The DWP plans to invest $2 billion in the next decade in “infrastructure reliability,” though that figure is down from last year’s plan because of what the department calls budget constraints.

Advertisement

Public officials too often put off infrastructure maintenance because of the budget demands of other programs and the growing costs of public employee compensation.

Tuesday’s disaster in Westwood is a reminder that the dangers lurking out of sight must not be out of mind.